Flying

Flying is an instrumental number credited to all four Beatles and performed on the Magical Mystery Tour album (1967). Not since Cry for a Shadow in 1961 did the Beatles record and release an instrumental. This was the only instrumental recorded for EMI. (A third instrumental, 12-Bar Blues, was recorded in 1965 but not released.) The recording of Flying was made on September 8, 1967 and overdubbed on September 28. The original version was a 12-bar blues-style song in C major, with a coda reminiscent of the traditional, up-tempo, New Orleans jazz endings. The coda was replaced by "tape loops" made by Ringo and John. These loops extended the song to 9 minutes, but the edited version brought the whole track back to 2:17. These elements (the jazz-ending and the tape loops) were also combined electronically to make "the Bus" -- a somewhat form-free fragment employed at several junctures in the TV movie of Magical Mystery Tour. In the recording, John plays the melody on mellotron.